Momentum (Christ – centred, Spirit – empowered, Mission – focused)
Over the past several months, God has been leading me on a journey into a deeper and fuller baptism of His presence and power.
I came to the realization that I had become content in my spiritual development and was stuck in a place of complacency. I was very busy doing God’s work, and loving it, but deep within my soul there was a growing awareness that God was calling me to go deeper in my relationship with him. I was reminded of the attitude of Simpson, who wrote, “At all times my spirit has been open to God for anything He might be pleased to reveal or bestow…” He went on to declare, “We need a larger baptism of the Holy Spirit. . . . There are capacities in the human spirit none of us has ever yet begun to realize! New baptisms awaken the dormant powers that we did not know we possessed.”
So I began to pray a very simple prayer: “God, I want to receive all that you have for me and I will do whatever it takes to move into a deeper awareness of your presence and power.” Each day as I prayed that prayer, I listened to the voice of the Spirit, hoping for some profound supernatural experience that would lift me effortlessly to a new level of spiritual fullness.
However, what I kept hearing was a call to be a servant—specifically, to serve my family. This was not at all the pathway to greater fullness that I was anticipating. In fact, for several weeks, I resisted the voice of the Spirit, hoping He would relent and provide a different next step in my journey.
In my mind, I was serving my family, but the Spirit was revealing something deeper. The issue was not in the action of serving, but in the attitude! I was serving my family out of a selfish motive; I was a reluctant servant who acted in order to avoid stress or to manage the basic expectations so my life would be easier. I was not serving from a place of unconditional love and God-inspired delight. The Spirit was pressing for needed death to self in this area. I finally relented and, in surrender, simply replied, “What should I do?”
Instantly, I was impressed with the thought: “Wash their feet!” My immediate reaction was one of resistance and embarrassment; it would be awkward for them and for me. Again the Spirit was relentless, and so a few nights ago, I asked my family if they would allow me to wash their feet as a sign of a new commitment to serve them from a place of unconditional love.
To my surprise, they responded with openness and receptivity. The basin was filled with warm water, and one by one each of my family, including my son-in-law, allowed me to kneel before them and wash their feet. As I washed, I asked them to forgive me for serving them from a selfish heart. Then I spoke words of blessing and hope into their lives.
As I washed the feet of my family, I felt a growing awareness of the pleasure of Jesus—a deep sense of His delight, but even more, a new realization of His presence filling my soul.
I am still such a learner on this journey but I refuse to settle for less than what God wants to bestow. Simpson affirmed, “I pressed upon Him a new claim for a Mighty Baptism of the Holy Ghost in His complete Pentecostal fullness embracing all the gifts & graces of the Spirit…I knew that I had been baptized with the Holy Ghost before but I was made to understand that God had a deeper & fuller baptism for me.”
I, too, want a deeper and fuller baptism, but I am coming to realize that the pathway to greater fullness always requires greater death to self. If I want more of God, there needs to be less of me. I hate death, but I prefer it to emptiness. Perhaps today you are longing for more—a deeper and fuller baptism in your life. Could the way forward be a basin and a towel?
“I want the love that cannot help but love; Loving, like God, for the very sake of love” — A.B. Simpson
Please find the original version in C&MA website